Job 6:5

5 What then? will the wild ass bray for nothing, if he is not seeking food? or again, will the ox low at the manger, when he has a fodder?

Job 6:5 Meaning and Commentary

Job 6:5

Doth the wild ass bray when he hath grass? or loweth the ox
over his fodder?
] No, they neither of them do, when the one is in a good pasture, and the other has a sufficiency of provender; but when they are in want of food, the one will bray, and the other will low, which are tones peculiar to those creatures, and express their mournful complaints; wherefore Job suggests, that should he make no moan and complaint in his sorrowful circumstances, he should be more stupid and senseless than those brute creatures: and he may have some respect to the different circumstances of himself and his friends; he himself, when he was in prosperity, made no complaints, as the wild ass brays not, and the ox lows not, when they have both food enough; but now, being in distress, he could not but utter his sorrow and trouble, as those creatures when in lack of food; and this may serve as an answer to his different conduct now and formerly, objected to him, ( Job 4:3-5 ) ; and so his friends; they lived in great tranquillity and prosperity, as Aben Ezra observes, and roared and grieved not, which doubtless they would, were they in the same circumstances he was; though it became them, as things were, to have uttered words of condolence to their friend in distress, instead of sharp reproofs and hard censures.

Job 6:5 In-Context

3 And verily they would be heavier than the sand by the seashore: but, as it seems, my words are vain.

4 For the arrows of the Lord are in my body, whose violence drinks up my blood: whenever I am going to speak, they pierce me.

5 What then? will the wild ass bray for nothing, if he is not seeking food? or again, will the ox low at the manger, when he has a fodder?

6 Shall bread be eaten without salt? or again, is there taste in empty words?

7 For my wrath cannot cease; for I perceive my food as the smell of a lion loathsome.